A Walk in the Woods

I know that Bill Bryson's book A Walk in the Woods has been around for a long while and that I'm totally late to the game, but I had to tell you all how wonderful he is and how delightful the book is.

I'm sure you all have already read it, and are thinking to yourselves, "Geez, what took you so long, Paige?"

I'm not sure.

I know this book has been recommended to me for ages (I think Miko from middle school was probably the first person to tell me to read it), and the book has been sitting on my parents' bookshelves for years, but I finally snagged my very own copy at the used bookstore and promptly devoured it the moment I cracked it open and read the first page.

A Walk in the Woods is Bill Bryson's travelogue/memoir of his attempt to walk the 2,100 plus mile Appalachian Trail.  Bryson admits to not being very fit or able, but his walking companion, Stephen Katz, is even less so.  The two men proceed on their difficult journey learning much about themselves, the wilderness and the importance of packing Snickers.

Bryson's book is laugh out loud funny.  Just ask Bryan.  We would be reading quietly side by side, and then suddenly I would be cackling like a deranged hyena (when I can't stop from laughing I think of Eddy the Hyena from Disney's The Lion King, yup, the one with the lazy eye).  And even though Bryan wouldn't ask what was so funny, I would proceed to read him a passage or two.  Bryson's book is well worth sharing.  Even if you all have already read it.

I now have to find everything that Bryson has ever written.

Until then, I'm reading Patrick DeWhite's The Sisters Brothers.  I was hooked on the title alone.